audio
171 TopicsStoryline 360: Adjusting Video Properties
Storyline 360 lets you adjust these properties for an embedded video: How loud it is in relation to your overall course Where it gets displayed and when it plays Whether it has its own player controls Whether it's compressed What its alt text and closed captions are How it's arranged with other objects on the slide and what size it is To access video properties, click once on the video you want to edit, then go to the Options tab on the ribbon. Working with Video Options Preview Play the selected video on the slide stage. Click the button again to stop it. Video Volume Change the relative volume of your video. Low lowers the volume to 50% of the original. Medium sets the volume at 100%, meaning the original volume doesn’t change. This is the default option. High raises the volume to 150% of the original. Mute silences the video. This option isn't available for website videos. Edit Video Edit the video. When the built-in video editor opens, you can trim and crop to show only the portions you want, adjust the volume, brightness, and contrast to improve quality, and add a logo or watermark for branding. To learn more about using the video editor, review this user guide. This option isn't available for website videos. Show Video Choose to display the video in the slide or a new browser window. Play Video Choose one of these options to decide when you want the video to start playing. (This property will be grayed out if you display the video in a new browser window—see above.) Automatically plays the video as soon as the slide's timeline reaches the start of the video object. For more details on working with the timeline, review this user guide. When clicked plays the video when learners click it. From trigger plays the video when a specific event has occurred, such as clicking a button. To learn more about triggers, review this user guide. This option doesn't apply to website videos. Generally, learners need to click web videos to play them. Some browsers still allow web videos to autoplay (if the autoplay feature is enabled in your embed code), but the trend is for browsers to prevent media from autoplaying. Video Controls If you're using the modern player, enable accessible video controls and pick a dark or light theme color for them. Choose Show none to omit accessible video controls. If you're using the classic player, choose Below video from the drop-down to add a separate legacy playbar to the video, so learners can play, pause, rewind, and fast forward it. Choose None to omit the separate playbar for the video. This option isn't available for website videos. Compression Choose Automatic from the drop-down to have Storyline 360 compress your video files when you publish. Choose None if you don’t want to compress your video files. Video quality will be higher, but the file will also be larger. This feature is only available for MP4 videos created with baseline, main, or high profiles. All other video files will be compressed when published. Add Captions Edit Captions This button will change depending on whether your video already has captions. Click it to open the closed captions editor, where you can fine-tune imported captions or quickly add new ones with the help of caption placeholders already synced with your video. Import Export Delete Use these buttons to import, export, and delete closed captions. Review this user guide for details. Arrange Arrange the video with other slide objects using the Bring Forward, Send Backward, and Align drop-down. Size Size the video on the slide using the Height and Width fields. Enter values in pixels. The aspect ratio of your video will be maintained—when you change one value, the other value will automatically change for you. Additional Right-Click Options for Working with Videos You can access several more video options by simply right-clicking a video placeholder. Group Group a video with other objects on the slide. This is useful if you want to rotate a video. Although videos can't be rotated by themselves, they can be rotated when they're grouped with another object. Bring to Front Send to Back Arrange your video with other objects on the slide. Preview Video Play the video on the slide stage. Click anywhere outside the video to stop it. Edit Video Edit your video in the built-in video editor. This option isn't available for website videos. Change Embed Code Modify the embed code. This option only pertains to website videos. Replace Video Swap out the original video without losing your video properties. Choose a Video from File, browse Content Library 360 Videos, select a video from the Media Library, or Record a webcam video. Export Video Export the video from Storyline 360. It saves as an MP4 file. Show in Media Library View the video in the media library. Set Poster Frame Assign a placeholder image to your video. Choose a Picture from File or browse Content Library 360 Photos. This is especially useful if you've configured your video to play only when learners click it. The poster frame will be visible to learners until they click it to play the video. To remove the poster frame, right-click the video again, and select Remove Poster Frame. Export Frame as Picture Export a frame of the video as an image from Storyline 360. It saves as a PNG file. Rename Change the default name (Video 1, Video 2, etc.) assigned to videos in Storyline 360. Another way to rename videos and other objects is to use the timeline. Size and Position Specify an exact size and position for your video. To learn more about the Size and Position window, review this user guide. Accessibility Open the Size and Position window directly to the Accessibility tab where you can add alt text and closed captions. You Might Also Want to Explore: Adding Videos Editing Videos2.4KViews0likes0CommentsStoryline: Interactive Video Quiz Template
Interactive videos in e-learning can be an effective way to enhance your course scenarios, activities, and quizzes. And Articulate Storyline makes working with video super easy. This Storyline interaction features customizable buttons, quiz questions, feedback layers. I've included a sample video to show you how the timing and interactivity were created. Tutorial: Learn more about the template and how to customize it in this article.699Views0likes35CommentsAI Assistant: Producing Highly Realistic Audio
As a course author, you want to do more than just present information—you want to create multi-sensory e-learning experiences that resonate with learners. Using sound creatively can help you get there. AI Assistant’s text-to-speech and sound effects features let you create highly realistic AI-generated voices and sound effects for more immersive and accessible content. Available only in Storyline 360, these features can be accessed from the Insert Audio dropdown in the AI Assistant menu within the ribbon. Find them under the Home or Insert tab when you’re in slide view or from the AI Assistant side panel as quick action buttons for added convenience. Bring Narration to Life with AI-generated Voices If you’ve ever used classic text-to-speech, you probably wished the voices sounded less, well, robotic. AI Assistant’s text-to-speech brings narration to life with contextually aware AI-generated voices that sound more natural—and human! Check out the difference in quality between a standard voice, neural voice, and AI-generated voice by playing the text-to-speech examples below. Standard Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. Neural Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. AI-generated Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. To get started, click the Insert Audio icon in the AI Assistant menu to open the Generate AI Audio dialog box. A library of AI-generated voices—which you can filter by Gender, Age, and Accent—displays under the Voices tab. The voices also have descriptions like “deep,” “confident,” “crisp,” “intense,” and “soothing” and categories that can help you determine their ideal use cases, from news broadcasts to meditation, or even ASMR. Find these qualities under the voice’s name, and use the play button to preview the voice. Currently, there are 52 pre-made voices to choose from, and you can mark your favorites by clicking the heart icon. This way, you can easily access your preferred voices without having to scroll through the list. Toggle the View option to Favorites to find all your favorite voices, or In project to see voices used in the current project. Once you’ve decided on a voice, click the button labeled Use to switch to the Text-to-Speech tab. Your chosen voice is already pre-selected. Next, enter your script in the text box provided or click the add from slide notes link to copy notes from your slide. The script can be a maximum of 5,000 characters. For accessibility, leave the Generate closed captions box checked—AI Assistant will generate closed captions automatically. You can instantly determine if your text-to-speech narration has closed captions by the CC label that appears next to each output. Find More Voices in the Voice Library In addition to the pre-made voices, you also have access to an extended voice library with thousands of ultrarealistic, AI-generated voices that can be filtered by age, gender, and use case. Discover the right voice for your content by clicking the Voice Library button on the right under the My Voices tab. Check out this article to learn how to use the voice library. Adjust the Voice Settings Unlike classic text-to-speech, the AI-generated voices in AI Assistant’s text-to-speech can be customized for a tailored voice performance. The Model setting lets you choose between the Multilingual v2 model—highly stable, exceptionally accurate, lifelike speech with support for 29 languages—and Flash v2.5 model—slightly less stable but can generate faster with support for 32 languages. Play the following samples to listen and compare the voices generated by each model. Multilingual v2 Your browser does not support the audio element. Flash v2.5 Your browser does not support the audio element. The setting for Stability controls the balance between the voice’s steadiness and randomness. The Similarity setting determines how closely the AI should adhere to the original voice when attempting to replicate it. The defaults are set to 0.50 for the stability slider and 0.75 for the similarity slider, but you can play around with these settings to find the right balance for your content. Additional settings include Style exaggeration, which amplifies the style of the original voice, and Speaker boost, which enhances the similarity between synthesized speech and the voice. Note that if either of those settings is adjusted, generating your speech will take longer. Note: Some voices in the Multilingual v2 model tend to have inconsistent volume—fading out toward the end—when generating lengthy clips. This is a known issue with the underlying model, and our AI subprocessor for text-to-speech is working to address it. In the meantime, we suggest the following workarounds: Use a different voice Switch to the Flash v2.5 model Increase the voice’s stability Manually break your text into smaller chunks to generate shorter clips Do I Need to Use SSML? AI Assistant has limited support for speech synthesis markup language (SSML) because AI-generated voices are designed to understand the relationship between words and adjust delivery accordingly. If you need to manually control pacing, you can add a pause. The most consistent way to do that is by inserting the syntax <break time="1.5s" /> into your script. This creates an exact and natural pause in the speech. For example: With their keen senses <break time="1.5s" /> cats are skilled hunters. Use seconds to describe a break of up to three seconds in length. You can try a simple dash - or em-dash — to insert a brief pause or multiple dashes for a longer pause. Ellipsis ... will also sometimes work to add a pause between words. However, these options may not work consistently, so we recommend using the syntax above for consistency. Just keep in mind that an excessive number of break tags can potentially cause instability. Multilingual Voices Expand Your Reach Another compelling benefit of AI-generated text-to-speech is the ability to bridge language gaps, allowing you to connect with international audiences. With support for up to 32 languages depending on the model—including some with multiple accents and dialects—AI Assistant’s text-to-speech helps your content resonate with a global audience. All you have to do is type or paste your script in the supported language you want AI Assistant to use. (Even though the voice description notes a specific accent or language, AI Assistant will generate the narration in the language used in your script.) Note that some voices tend to work best with certain accents or languages, so feel free to experiment with different voices to find the best fit for your needs. The table below provides a quick rundown of supported languages. Available in Multilingual v2 and Flash v2.5: Arabic (Saudi Arabia) Arabic (UAE) Bulgarian Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English (Australia) English (Canada) English (UK) English (USA) Filipino Finnish French (Canada) French (France) German Greek Hindi Indonesian Italian Japanese Korean Malay Polish Portuguese (Brazil) Portuguese (Portugal) Romanian Russian Slovak Spanish (Mexico) Spanish (Spain) Swedish Tamil Turkish Ukrainian Available only in Flash v2.5: Hungarian Norwegian Vietnamese Create Sound Effects Using Prompts Sound effects that align with your theme and content can highlight important actions or feedback, like clicking a button or choosing a correct answer, offering a more engaging and effective e-learning experience. With AI Assistant’s sound effects, you can now use prompts to easily create nearly any sound imaginable. No more wasting time scouring the web for pre-made sounds that may cost extra! Start creating high-quality sound effects by going to the AI Assistant menu in the ribbon under the Home or Insert tab. Then, click the lower half of the Insert Audio icon, and choose Sound Effects. (You can also access it from the Audio dropdown within the Insert tab. Simply select Sound Effects under the AI Audio option.) In the text box, describe the sound effect you want and choose a duration. You can adjust the Prompt influence slider to give AI Assistant more or less creative license in generating the sound. Since AI Assistant understands natural language, sound effects can be created using anything from a simple prompt like “a single mouse click” to a very complex one that describes multiple sounds or a sequence of sounds in a specific order. Just note you have a maximum of 450 characters to describe the sound you want to generate. Play the following audio samples to listen to sound effects created using a simple prompt and a complex one. Your browser does not support the audio element. Prompt: A single mouse click Your browser does not support the audio element. Prompt: Dogs barking, then lightning strikes You can also adjust the Duration—how long the sound effect plays—up to a maximum of 22 seconds. For example, if your prompt is “barking dog” and you set the duration to 10 seconds, you’ll get continuous barking, but a duration of two seconds is one quick bark. Adjusting the Prompt Influence slider to the right makes AI Assistant strictly adhere to your prompt, while sliding it to the left allows more free interpretation. Pro tip: You can instantly determine if your sound effect has closed captions by the CC label that appears next to each output. Some Pro Terms to Know Using audio terminology—specialized vocabulary that audio experts use in their work—can help improve your prompts and produce even more dynamic sound effects. Here are a few examples: Braam: A deep, resonant, and often distorted bass sound used in media, particularly in trailers, to create a sense of tension, power, or impending doom. Whoosh: A quick, swooshing sound often used to emphasize fast motion, transitions, or dramatic moments. Impact: A sharp, striking noise used to signify a collision, hit, or sudden forceful contact, often to highlight a moment of action or emphasis. Glitch: A short, jarring, and usually digital noise that mimics a malfunction or distortion, commonly used to convey errors. Foley: The process of recreating and recording everyday sound effects like movements and object sounds in sync with the visuals of a film, videos, or other media. Here’s something fun to try! Generate a 3-second sound effect using the prompt “studio quality, sound designed whoosh and braam impact.” Increasing the duration may produce better sound effects but will also create more dead air towards the end. Pro tip: Onomatopoeias—words like “buzz,” “boom,” “click,” and “pop” that imitate natural sounds—are also important sound effects terms. Use them in your prompts to create more realistic sound effects. Video Tutorials Want to learn more before getting started? Check out our video tutorials for additional guidance on using AI Assistant to generate text-to-speech and sound effects. Create AI-generated Text-to-Speech Create AI-generated Sound Effects Articulate 360 Training also has additional video tutorials on using other AI Assistant features. Use AI Assistant features in Rise 360 Use AI Assistant features in Storyline 360 You must be logged in to your Articulate 360 account to watch the videos. Don’t have an account yet? Sign up for a free trial now!8.8KViews14likes0CommentsStoryline 360: Importing Closed Captions for Narration and Videos
Make your Storyline 360 courses more accessible for learners who are deaf or hard of hearing by importing closed captions and subtitles for narration and videos. Just insert standard SRT, VTT, SBV, or SUB files. Don’t have caption files to import? No problem. Create closed captions and subtitles from scratch with the built-in editor. Preparing Your Caption Files Importing Captions Deleting Captions Exporting Captions Customizing Your Closed Captions Showing or Hiding the Closed Captioning Button on the Player Using Triggers to Turn Closed Captions On and Off Preparing Your Caption Files Storyline 360 supports SRT, VTT, SBV, and SUB files generated by third-party captioning services such as YouTube, Amara, and 3PlayMedia. Here are some tips to ensure your caption files are properly formatted for Storyline 360: Storyline 360 supports bold, italic, and underline formatting in caption files as well as voice tags to indicate which person is speaking. All other formatting tags, such as font and font color, will be ignored. (Use the closed caption settings in the player properties to format your captions.) A caption will automatically wrap if it’s too long to fit on a single line. However, if you need a caption to break at a specific point, add one line break in your caption file in the appropriate place. On the other hand, if you need to split a caption into two separate caption boxes that display simultaneously, add two line breaks in your caption file. You might do this when two people are speaking and you want each speaker’s dialogue to display in its own caption box. If some letters or characters in your captions are unexpectedly replaced by symbols in Storyline 360, make sure your caption files are encoded for UTF-8. Importing Captions Closed captions are supported for audio tracks and videos. You can import captions simultaneously with your media, or you can import captions separately. We describe both options in the table below. Import Captions Simultaneously with Media If your caption files have the same names as your media files and are stored in the same folder with the media, they’ll automatically import into Storyline 360 when you import your media. For example, if I have a video called MyVideo.mp4 and the corresponding caption file is named MyVideo.srt and is located in the same folder, I only need to import the video into my Storyline 360 project, and the captions will automatically import and sync with the video. To learn how to import audio and video files into Storyline 360, see these user guides: Importing Audio Files Importing Video Files Import Captions After Adding Media To import captions after adding media to your Storyline 360 project: Select the audio track or video that you want to caption. Go to the Options tab on the ribbon and click Import. Browse to the caption file you want to import, then click Open. Another way to import captions is to right-click the video placeholder or the speaker icon that represents your audio track, choose Accessibility, then click the Import icon. (View this user guide to learn more about the Size and Position window.) Note about captions in markers: When you right-click an interactive marker and choose Accessibility, you’ll see closed caption features for audio and video since a marker can have both types of media at the same time. Pro Tips: You can import closed captions from the ribbon or the Size and Position window, as described above. Even better, you can use the media library to import and manage closed captions for all audio clips and videos in your project. You can add captions to all audio clips and videos, except website videos. Storyline 360 automatically generates synchronized video transcripts from closed captions. Media content with closed captions displays a CC label in their media icons on the timeline and slide stage for quick identification. Deleting Captions To delete captions you previously added: Select the audio track or video that has captions you want to remove. Go to the Options tab on the ribbon and click Delete. (It will be grayed-out if there aren’t any captions to delete.) Exporting Captions Need to export captions from Storyline 360 so you can edit them or use them in another project? Here’s how: Select the audio track or video that has captions you want to export. Go to the Options tab on the ribbon and click Export. (It'll be grayed-out if there aren’t any captions to export.) Choose a location where you want to save your caption file, then click Save. Exported captions always generate a VTT file. Customizing Your Closed Captions Choose the foreground and background colors, font, size, and position of your captions. In the player properties window, click Colors & Effects on the ribbon, then use the Closed Captions formatting options. Then, click OK to save and close the player settings. If you’re using the classic player, you can choose the captions font. You can also set the font size for all player elements and captions as a single unit by adjusting the Player font size percentage. Showing or Hiding the Closed Captioning Button on the Player The closed captioning button on the course player is enabled by default, but you can disable it if you plan to build your own custom controls or use accessible video controls. Go to the Home tab on the ribbon and click Player. When the player properties open, mark the Captions box to show the closed captioning button or uncheck it to hide the closed captioning button. Click OK to save and close the player settings. Tips for interacting with the closed captioning button: The closed captioning button may not always be visible throughout your course. It’s only visible when captions are available on the current slide or layer. It’ll disappear for slides and layers that don’t have captions. This gives learners a visual clue when captions are available. When a learner clicks the closed captioning button to turn on captions, the button will remain turned on throughout the course until the learner clicks it again to turn it off. Using Triggers to Turn Captions On and Off If the closed captioning button is enabled on your course player (see above), learners can toggle captions on and off whenever they want. However, you can also control captions via triggers. Just adjust the built-in Player.DisplayCaptions variable to either True (on) or False (off). Here are a couple scenarios where you might control captions via triggers and how to set them up. Turn Captions On by Default Captions are turned off by default, but if most of your learners need captions, you might want to turn them on automatically when the course starts. Just add a trigger to the first slide in your course with these trigger wizard parameters: Action: Adjust variable Operator: = Set Variable: Player.DisplayCaptions Value: Value = True When: Timeline starts Object: Select the first slide in your course from the drop-down list. Build Your Own Custom Navigation Buttons If you disable the built-in player features and build your own custom navigation buttons, you can use triggers to show and hide captions. Just add a trigger to a button with these trigger wizard parameters to create a toggle: Action: Adjust Variable Operator: Toggle Variable: Player.DisplayCaptions When: User clicks Object: Select your custom button from the drop-down list.4.9KViews0likes0CommentsRise 360: Add Text and Media
In Rise 360, blocks are form-based templates, so adding content is as easy as plugging text and media into placeholders. Depending on the blocks you selected, you simply fill out forms with text, images, narration, videos, and embedded web content. Here are tips for working with each type of content. Author Avatars Text Images Audio Videos Web Content Author Avatars You can edit the title and show or hide the author. Under the title, you can hide the author of the content you're editing by clicking the author avatar and selecting Hide Author. If there are multiple authors, you can select which author attribution to display. To hide all author avatars for all a deliverable, select the appropriate option in the Theme > Lesson Headers menu. Text Type your text in the web interface or copy text from external sources and paste it into Rise 360. In most blocks, you can add and edit text in the body of the main window. In some cases, you can use the sidebar—for example, add marker text in the sidebar for labeled graphic blocks. Format text by selecting it and choosing formatting options on the floating toolbar that appears. Or, use the keyboard shortcuts below. Key(s) Function Ctrl+A Select all Ctrl+B Bold Ctrl+I Italicize Ctrl+K Hyperlink Ctrl+S Strikethrough Ctrl+U Underline Ctrl+Z Undo Ctrl+Shift+Z Redo Ctrl+[ Decrease indent Ctrl+] Increase indent When you paste text, Rise 360 retains the source formatting. To paste your text without formatting, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V. You can also restore the default Rise 360 formatting to pasted text by selecting it and clicking the Reset icon. Pro Tip: The default text size for non-heading content is 17pt. Quickly Insert Tables, Lists, and Math Equations Available in the sidebar and main window of most blocks that support text, quick insert lets you add tables, lists, and math equations to blocks with a single click. On a blank line, click Quick Insert (+). Select Insert Table, Unordered List, Ordered List, or Math Equations from the row of icons. Images Depending on the block type you’re using, click the camera icon or the Add Images button. Sometimes it’s in the main window; sometimes it’s in the sidebar. Upload images from your computer or search photos and illustrations from 14+ million assets in Content Library 360. Rise 360 compresses your uploaded images with virtually no loss of quality. Use high-quality images in your courses and let Rise 360 optimize them for web distribution. After adding an image, click Edit to remove it, replace it, or add alternate text for screen readers. Create Images from Scratch with AI Assistant Turn your ideas into high-quality images! With AI Assistant, you can create images from scratch in no time! Learn how to use AI Assistant to level up your course authoring game. Audio In labeled graphic, process, and timeline blocks, click the Record Audio microphone icon, then click either Start Recording or Upload a file. You can also add a multimedia audio block on its own. Click Edit to open the sidebar. Choose either Upload or Start Recording. The maximum file size for each audio file you upload to Rise 360 is 5 GB. After adding audio, click Edit to remove or replace it. Mac Users: Safari must be updated to the latest version for audio recording support. Alternately, use Google Chrome or Firefox when you need to record narration in Rise 360. Videos In blocks that support videos, click the camera icon and choose Upload media. Sometimes the camera icon is in the main window; sometimes it’s in the sidebar. We recommend using high-quality videos with a 16:9 aspect ratio for the best results. Rise 360 compresses videos so they have smaller file sizes for web distribution while maintaining high quality. The maximum file size for each video you upload to Rise 360 is 5 GB. After adding a video, click Edit to remove or replace it. Tip: You can also import screencasts you create with Replay 360 and Peek 360. Web Content In blocks that support embedded media, click the camera icon and choose Embed from web. Sometimes the camera icon is in the main window; sometimes it’s in the sidebar. Just paste the URL or embed code for the web content you want to use—for example, a YouTube video or an interactive graphic. You can even use parameters for embedded YouTube and Vimeo videos. Note: Videos in embedded web content don't pause when the learner switches to another tab or scrolls away from the content. To enable auto-pause, you must upload the video as a file, as detailed in the previous section. We use Embedly to embed rich media in Rise 360 courses, which means you can use videos, images, documents, and other media from over 400 content providers, such as YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, and Scribd. See the complete list of supported content providers here. If there’s an error or your web content doesn’t display, see these articles for tips: Embedded Content Is Missing or Blank How to Fix Invalid Embed Code2.4KViews1like0CommentsStoryline 360: Enrich Audio Narrations with Classic or AI-Generated Text-to-Speech
Course authors have long relied on the classic text-to-speech feature in Storyline 360 to create quick audio narration for their e-learning content and speed up course development. However, even with the neural voice options that have been added to the standard ones, the voices in the classic text-to-speech feature can sound robotic, making for a less natural and engaging learner experience. Now, AI-generated text-to-speech is changing the game. The newest addition to your authoring toolkit, AI Assistant’s text-to-speech gives you access to incredibly lifelike, AI-generated voices that are hard to distinguish from a real human voice. So will you keep using the classic version or embrace the brave new world of AI text-to-speech technology? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each to help you decide which option to choose for your next project. Classic Text-to-Speech Storyline’s classic text-to-speech has evolved significantly over the years. In particular, the introduction of neural voices empowered authors to create more realistic and natural-sounding narrations. Here’s an overview of when classic text-to-speech may be the best choice to elevate your audio content. You need certain languages. Classic text-to-speech allows you to create narrations for diverse audiences with support for multiple languages in standard and neural voice. In addition, some of these languages—including Icelandic, Welsh, Catalan, and Irish—are only currently available in classic text-to-speech. You need full SSML support. Unlike AI-generated text-to-speech, classic text-to-speech offers full speech synthesis markup language (SSML) support. This allows you to fine-tune narrations by adjusting the speaking rate, modifying pronunciation, adding pauses, and more to boost clarity and interest. You have reservations about using AI. Not everyone is ready to embrace new technologies like generative AI, and even some organizations have restrictions on using AI-powered tools. Outside of these specific circumstances, however, the overall quality of classic text-to-speech voices may not be sufficiently natural, especially for more complex or nuanced content. Want to judge for yourself? You can hear classic text-to-speech in action by playing the narrations below. Standard Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. Neural Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. AI-Generated Text-to-Speech AI Assistant’s text-to-speech feature takes voice narration to the next level, using generative AI technology to create highly realistic voices. You can customize the voices to fit your content needs, making the experience feel more personal and engaging to your learners. Here’s an overview of when AI text-to-speech may be the best option for bringing your narrations to life. You need certain (other) languages. AI Assistant allows you to broaden your reach with support for up to 32 languages, depending on the model used to generate narration—including some with multiple accents and dialects. The table below lists 11 languages you can only find in AI text-to-speech. Bulgarian Croatian Filipino Greek Hindi Hungarian Indonesian Malay Slovak Ukrainian Vietnamese You want an easier process. AI Assistant’s intuitive interface helps you quickly generate narration in any supported language. Simply select a voice and enter a script—AI Assistant handles the rest. Even though the voice description may note a specific accent or language, AI Assistant still generates narration in the language used in your script. You need highly customizable voices to create a personalized audio experience. AI Assistant lets you control everything, from adjusting the balance between steadiness and randomness to determining how closely the AI should adhere to the original voice when attempting to replicate it. Click here to learn how to customize AI-generated voices. You want to impress your learners with lifelike, context-aware voices. AI Assistant’s text-to-speech adapts to the tone, emotion, and nuances of your content or script. Here’s an example of a text-to-speech narration created using an AI-generated voice. AI-generated Voice Your browser does not support the audio element. You need voices tailored to specific training needs. AI Assistant comes with a voice library that offers thousands of ultrarealistic, AI-generated voices that can be filtered by age, gender, and use case. That said, AI text-to-speech has its own drawbacks. For example, because the underlying models don’t support SSML phoneme tags, AI text-to-speech has limited SSML options, as mentioned above. If you have special terminology or pronunciation, indicating that can be harder without full SSML support. And while AI text-to-speech does support the break tag <break time=“1.5s” /> if you want to manually control pacing, note that an excessive number of break tags can potentially cause instability. In addition, AI text-to-speech offers a huge variety of options but no specific guidance on which voices work best for a given language. Finding just the right voice can require a lot of experimentation—that may be time you don’t have. Pro tip: Keeping a reference list of voices that work for specific languages in your courses can help for your next project. Choose What Works For You AI-generated voices clearly have the edge over classic text-to-speech options on voice quality. However, if you (or your organization) are still on the fence about adopting generative AI in your content creation process or have specialized needs, classic text-to-speech is still there to help you create engaging audio interactions. You get to decide what sounds right for your learners—and for your own content and workflow.1.1KViews0likes0CommentsStoryline: Interactive Video Interview
Give learners a realistic interview experience with this interactive video Q&A. They’ll click questions on the left to hear video responses, just like in a real conversation. Each selection triggers a different video, making the experience dynamic, engaging, and immersive. It’s a simple way to bring interviews to life and create a more interactive, hands-on learning experience. View the interactive video interview232Views0likes25CommentsVideo Quiz: Two Truths and One Lie
This interactive video quiz does more than just ask questions—it shows you short video clips that present different choices. Right after you answer, you get instant feedback, so you’re not left wondering if you got it right. Since both the questions and feedback are in video form, it keeps things engaging and helps you really understand the material. It’s a simple but effective way to learn by seeing concepts in action rather than just reading about them. View the video interview123Views0likes26CommentsStoryline 360: Converting Text to Speech
Speed up course development by converting text to speech right in Storyline 360. For example, use the text-to-speech feature to quickly narrate a course for stakeholder review or to localize narration in different languages. You can even choose the voice and language to make sure every word sounds right. Watch this video demonstration, then check out the detailed instructions below. Converting Text to Speech Selecting Languages and Voices Updating Script Changes or Using a Different Voice Generating Closed Captions Replacing Text-to-Speech Narration with Recorded Narration Create Text-to-Speech with AI Assistant Bring narration to life with AI-generated voices that are highly realistic and customizable. Add your script, define voice settings, and let AI Assistant do the rest. Learn how to use AI Assistant to level up your course authoring game. Converting Text to Speech Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon, click the Audio drop-down arrow, and choose Text-to-Speech. When the Insert Text-to-Speech window appears, select a Language from the first drop-down list. This ensures that your words are spoken with the correct pronunciations. Choose a Voice (standard or neural) from the second drop-down list. You can hear what a voice sounds like by clicking the Preview Voice button next to the list. Type or paste your script into the text-entry field. Or, if you want to use your slide notes as your script, just click the Copy from Slide Notes button. You can convert up to 10,000 characters at a time. When using speech synthesis markup language (SSML), you can convert up to 3,000 characters for text and 3,000 for SSML tags. If your script is longer than that, break it into smaller chunks and generate more than one text-to-speech audio clip. Then, place the audio clips back to back on the timeline so they play in sequential order. See below for tips on pronunciation and phrasing. Keep the Generate Closed Captions box marked to add closed captions to your text-to-speech narration. Learn more about text-to-speech closed captions below. Click Insert to complete the process. You must have an internet connection to convert text to speech. If you're offline, Storyline 360 prompts you to connect to the internet and try again. Storyline 360 converts your text to narration, and it’ll appear as an audio clip on the slide’s timeline. The conversion process is fast, but lengthy scripts take longer to convert. Text-to-speech narration works just like other audio clips in Storyline 360, so you can use the built-in audio editor and audio tools to customize it. You can add as many text-to-speech clips as you want. You can even use different voices for different clips, which is great when creating a scene where two or more characters are conversing. Tips for Controlling Pronunciation and Phrasing Don't use abbreviations. Spell out words to make sure they're pronounced correctly. If a correctly spelled word isn't pronounced the way you want, try spelling it phonetically or adding hyphens between syllables—for example, Articulate vs. Articu-late. Use punctuation, such as commas and semicolons, when inserting brief pauses. For longer pauses, convert your text to speech, then open the clip in the built-in audio editor and insert silence where needed. Want more control? As of December 2023, you can use SSML to adjust the speaking rate, modify pronunciation, add pauses, and more. Selecting Languages and Voices Choose from various standard and neural languages and voices to enhance your training. Standard Voices This is the full list of standard voices in Storyline 360, alphabetized and arranged by language. Language Name(s) Arabic Zeina (Female) Chinese (Mandarin) Zhiyu (Female) Danish Mads (Male), Naja (Female) Dutch (Netherlands) Lotte (Female), Ruben (Male) English (Australia) Nicole (Female), Russell (Male) English (India) Aditi (Female), Raveena (Female) English (United Kingdom) Amy (Female), Brian (Male), Emma (Female) English (USA) Joanna (Female), Joey (Male), Justin (Male), Kendra (Female), Kimberly (Female), Matthew (Male), Salli (Female) English (Wales) Geraint (Male) French (Canada) Chantal (Female) French (France) Céline (Female), Léa (Female), Mathieu (Male) German (Germany) Hans (Male), Marlene (Female), Vicki (Female) Icelandic Dóra (Female), Karl (Male) Italian Bianca (Female), Carla (Female), Giorgio (Male) Japanese Mizuki (Female), Takumi (Male) Korean Seoyeon (Female) Norwegian Liv (Female) Polish Ewa (Female), Jacek (Male), Jan (Male), Maja (Female) Portuguese (Brazil) Camila (Female), Ricardo (Male), Vitória (Female) Portuguese (Portugal) Cristiano (Male), Inês (Female) Romanian Carmen (Female) Russian Maxim (Male), Tatyana (Female) Spanish (Latin American) Lupe (Female), Miguel (Male), Penélope (Female) Spanish (Mexican) Mia (Female) Spanish (Spain) Conchita (Female), Enrique (Male), Lucia (Female) Swedish Astrid (Female) Turkish Filiz (Female) Welsh Gwyneth (Female) Neural Voices Starting with the September 2023 update, you can generate realistic, natural-sounding text-to-speech narration with neural voices. This is the full list of neural voices in Storyline 360, alphabetized and arranged by language. This list is updated whenever new voices are added. Language Name(s) Arabic (Gulf) Hala (Female), Zayd (Male) Catalan Arlet (Female) Chinese (Cantonese) Hiujin (Female) Chinese (Mandarin) Zhiyu (Female) Czech Jitka (Female) Danish Sofie (Female) Dutch (Belgian) Lisa (Female) Dutch (Netherlands) Laura (Female) English (Australia) Olivia (Female) English (India) Kajal (Female) English (United Kingdom) Amy (Female), Arthur (Male), Brian (Male), Emma (Female) English (USA) Danielle (Female), Gregory (Male), Joanna (Female), Joey (Male), Justin (Male), Kendra (Female), Kevin (Male), Kimberly (Female), Matthew (Male), Ruth (Female), Salli (Female), Stephen (Male) Finnish Suvi (Female) French (Belgian) Isabelle (Female) French (Canada) Gabrielle (Female), Liam (Male) French (France) Léa (Female), Rémi (Male) German (Austria) Hannah (Female) German (Germany) Daniel (Male), Vicki (Female) German (Swiss) Sabrina (Female) Irish English Niamh (Female) Italian Adriano (Male), Bianca (Female) Japanese Kazuha (Female), Takumi (Male), Tomoko (Female) Korean Seoyeon (Female) New Zealand English Aria (Female) Norwegian Ida (Female) Polish Ola (Female) Portuguese (Brazil) Camila (Female), Thiago (Male), Vitória (Female) Portuguese (Portugal) Inês (Female) Singaporean English Jasmine (Female) South African English Ayanda (Female) Spanish (Latin American) Lupe (Female), Pedro (Male) Spanish (Mexican) Andrés (Male), Mia (Female) Spanish (Spain) Lucia (Female), Sergio (Male) Swedish Elin (Female) Turkish Burcu (Female) Updating Script Changes or Using a Different Voice What if you convert text to speech and then need to update it with script changes? Or what if you want to switch to a different voice later? No problem. Storyline 360 makes it easy to update text-to-speech narration. Right-click your text-to-speech audio track on the slide’s timeline and choose Text-to-Speech from the context menu that appears. Or, select your text-to-speech audio track, go to the Options tab on the ribbon, and click Text-to-Speech. The Insert Text-to-Speech window opens with your original script. Edit the script as needed or choose a different voice—or both. Click Update. Generating Closed Captions Storyline 360 can generate closed captions that are automatically synchronized with text-to-speech narration, making your course more accessible. You can add closed captions at the same time you convert text to speech or add them later. Here’s how. Generate Closed Captions When You Convert Text to Speech Keep the Generate Closed Captions box marked to add closed captions at the same time you convert text to speech. Learn how to convert text to speech above. Update Existing Narration with Closed Captions Right-click your text-to-speech audio track on the slide’s timeline and choose Text-to-Speech from the context menu that appears. The Insert Text-to-Speech window opens with your script. Check the Generate Closed Captions box. Click Update. Use the Closed Captions Editor to Add Captions Select your text-to-speech audio track on the slide’s timeline, then go to the Options tab on the ribbon and click Add Captions. When the closed captions editor opens, Storyline 360 automatically generates captions that are synced with your narration. Just click Save & Close on the ribbon. Learn More Creating and Editing Closed Captions with the Built-In Editor Importing Closed Captions for Narration and Videos Replacing Text-to-Speech Narration with Recorded Narration You can use text-to-speech narration during course development and later swap it out with professionally recorded narration, keeping your closed captions intact. Here’s how. Select your text-to-speech audio track on the slide’s timeline and go to the Options tab on the ribbon. Click the drop-down arrow beside Replace Audio. Choose to replace your text-to-speech audio with an audio file from your computer or an audio clip from the media library. Or, record narration with your microphone.9.1KViews0likes0Comments